After the preliminaries, the keynote session immediately goes into a confirmation of the Dassault-IBM relationship, which is changing. It's a 25-year-old relationship that they are changing to ensures it last another 25 years. IBM becomes a VAR in North America. IBM and Dassault have split customers between them. "This by no means lessens IBM's commitment to the PLM space." Heh: IBM is linking up with Dassault competitors, like UGS and PTC -- something that goes unsaid this morning.

8:15am

"PLM is the great enabler,the theme of why we are all here."

"Mis-communication between departments is unacceptable."

Where do you see the market going in the next 5 years?

"Most companies are not like big companies, which have PLM end to end." "The vision we have in the past to see all lifecycle simulated digitally is now a mission."

"We are truly going to define what this market is going to become. I remember the announcement of 3D Everywhere, we've seen the value of 3D come to fruition. I look at the 2D data display on the Internet, but then I see Second Life with the 3D virtual world. IBM is 1. Vitrying to determine the value of 3D world on the Internet. I think about marrying PLM with virtual worlds, avatars in Second Life developing the next generation of aircraft."

"3D Live is the first product to be labeled under Version 6." (CATIA and related softare is currently sold as Version 5.)

8:25am

Bernard Charles comes on stage. The CEO of Dassault announces he is real, not an avatar. He's been with the company since 1983.

"Last week we defined the new math that 15 = 21 = 26, where:

15 is growth in Euros
21 is growth with exchange allowance
26 is growth in US $."

"We have spent one billion on acquisitions" to expand PLM in different industries.

8:45am

1 million students trained on DS software (includes SolidWorks) each year.

Unlike 4 and 5, which were meant to replace previous versions, Version 6 compliments Version 5.

3D Life Demo

They are demo'ing 3D Live, which looks like the one that MCAD magazine reported on earlier this year. The aircraft model comes up on the screen. 3D Live has a desktop that does a search for specific kinds of products, such as all those that are coming up for regulatory compliance testing this week.

A toolbar at the bottom handles search, chat, etc.

A compass in the lower right corner accesses different definitions of data.

A grey disc in the center of the screen, with 3D models on the disc -- a 3D dashboard. Click an option on the compass, and the models change color to indicate environmental compliance. The PC turns red, and so the demo jock navigates according to color -- he moves in to the motherboard, and then the CPU and then the heatsink.

Now demo'ing "co-review" where two users chat and share diagrams. Two screens appear on each computer, so that you see both your's and the other person's screen.
(I'll post some photos later.)

9:20am

The owner of a large shipbuilder in China, Yantai Raffles, comes on stage. "I never thought I would be on stage in Las Vegas," he quips. His aim was to be the best shipbuilder in China, which he first thought meant only to be the cheapest. He bought a shipyard with low productivity, earning just $30,000 per employee per year. This year, it's $300,000 per employee per year, with a doubling of staff.

He uses DS software, creating a giant What-If machine. "Simulation at every level, through the entire lifecyle." He complains that the rest of the shipbuilding industry still uses 2D for half of all design, with multi-billion dollar cost overruns. His is the only shipyard in China that is all-3D.

Today, it is the energy industry that driving advances in shipbuilding. He shows "the tub," a floating oil platform shaped like an old round bathtub that stores the oil it drills. He says that PLM allows him to be on-time, and on budget. While he has many competitors, he feels he has none, because he can simulate for his customers what they want -- kind of like Home Depot's kitchen design service on a huge scale: 30,000 tons and a half-billion dollars. It was hard to implement PLM in his company, but now it is easy to drive PLM into his customers.